Thornham Parva | |
---|---|
Location within Suffolk | |
Population | 50 [1] |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Eye |
Postcode district | IP23 |
Police | Suffolk |
Fire | Suffolk |
Ambulance | East of England |
Thornham Parva is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located to the north of sister village Thornham Magna and around five miles south of Diss, in 2005 its population was 50. [1] By the time of the 2011 Census populations of less than 100 were not maintained separately and this village was included in the population of Thornham Magna.
The small, thatched St Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building. [2] It has early 14th-century wall paintings, on the south wall, the early years of Christ and on the north wall, the martyrdom of St Edmund. There is a circular window in the west wall of the nave that is said to be late Anglo-Saxon as well as the famous retable. Architect Basil Spence died in 1976 at his home in Yaxley, Suffolk and was buried at Thornham Parva. [3] The graves of Dame Anne Warburton, the first female British ambassador, and the violinist, Frederick Grinke, also lie within the churchyard.
The Thornham Parva Retable is a 15 feet (4.6 m) long medieval altarpiece, thought to have been created in the 1330s for a Dominican Priory. [4] It is the largest surviving altarpiece from the English Middle Ages. It survived the reformers of the 16th Century, who raged against idolatry and destroyed most of England's medieval culture, by being removed from the priory. It was discovered in 1927 in a loft at Thornham Hall. The local landowner, Lord Henniker donated it to the church of Thornham Parva where his brother was parson.
The origins of the retable were a puzzle but the picture itself provided vital clues. The figures pinpointed links with the Dominican Order. At either end are St Dominic and St Peter Martyr, joint patrons of the Dominicans. St Catherine and St Margaret of Antioch were the order's mascots. The Apostles Peter and Paul, who were believed to have spoken to St Dominic, all point towards Dominican interest. The presence of St Edmund suggests an East Anglian link. John the Baptist's figure might seem more obscure, but the benefactors of the Dominican Priory at Thetford, John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey and Edmund Gonville would have expected their namesakes to be part of the finished painting.
The retable returned to Thornham Parva church in 2003, following eight years of restoration by the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge. [5] Using sturgeon glue, applied with tiny dabs of cotton buds, inch by inch the layers of grime were removed to reveal rich gold and glowing autumnal palette of translucent reds, purples and greens which the original artist used.
An altarpiece is an work of art in painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, or a set of them, the word can also be used of the whole ensemble behind an altar, otherwise known as a reredos, including what is often an elaborate frame for the central image or images. Altarpieces were one of the most important products of Christian art especially from the late Middle Ages to the era of Baroque painting.
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A Dossal, from French dos (back), is one of a number of terms for something rising from the back of a church altar. In modern usage, it primarily refers to cloth hangings but it can also denote a board, often carved or containing a painting, that rises vertically from the back of the altar and to which the cloth is attached. Retable and reredos are alternative terms for solid structures, as is altarpiece, all of them rather more commonly used today.
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Thornham Magna is the larger sister village of Thornham Parva on the former estate of Thornham Hall, the Henniker family seat, in Suffolk. It is about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Eye and close to the A140 road from Norwich to Ipswich.
Siorac-de-Ribérac is a commune in the Dordogne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.
The Hamilton Kerr Institute is a branch of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridgeshire, England, dedicated to the study and conservation of easel paintings. It is also part of the University of Cambridge.
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Consecration crosses are crosses on the interior walls and exterior architecture of a Christian church or cathedral showing where the bishop has anointed the church with chrism or holy water in order to consecrate it. There is often a place for a candle in front of each cross which is lit on the anniversary of the consecration. The crosses signify the sanctity of the church. The 13th-century Trinity Chapel in Salisbury Cathedral contains a painted consecration cross dating from 30 September 1225.
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Linstead Parva is a small village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It has a small but notable 13th-century parish church, still in regular use. The village pub, The Greyhound, was already established and trading when referenced in 1874, but it closed permanently in March 1955, and is now a private dwelling.
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Blackfriars Leicester, also known as St Clement's Church, Leicester and St Clement's Priory, Leicester, is a former priory of the Order of Preachers in Leicester, England. It is also the name of a former civic parish, and a neighbourhood in the city built on and around the site of the old priory.
St Mary's Church is a medieval church in Thornham Parva, Suffolk, England. Much of the fabric dates from the 12th century, and it is a Grade I listed building. Originally the church served not only Thornham Parva but the neighbouring village of Thornham Magna, which is now a separate parish.
The Thornham Parva Retable is a medieval altarpiece, now in Thornham Parva, Suffolk, England. The retable is thought to have been created in the 1330s for a Dominican Priory. At 15 feet (4.6 m) long, it is the largest surviving altarpiece from the English Middle Ages.